Vehicle occupant protection devices for helping to protect a vehicle occupant during a vehicle event such as a crash, roll-over, etc., are known. To detect such a vehicle event, one or more event sensors are mounted to the vehicle and provide signals indicative of vehicle event conditions for which actuation of the protection device may be desired. The event sensors are connected to a controller that evaluates the event sensor signals using appropriate metrics. Upon determining the occurrence of a particular type of vehicle event, the vehicle occupant protection devices, e.g., air bags, inflatable side curtains, etc., are actuated.
Pedestrian protection systems have been proposed to reduce pedestrian injury when struck by a moving vehicle. Some proposed pedestrian protection systems include a sensor mounted in the vehicle bumper. If the sensor detects an impact with a pedestrian, an actuatable device is actuated to mitigate the impact effect. Such actuatable devices include, for example, actuators to raise the trailing end of the hood upward so as to aid in absorbing the impact effect. Actuatable forward mounted air bags have also been proposed to reduce impact effects.